Supreme Court agrees to hear Ganim appeal

Daniel Tepfer

Updated 8:00 pm, Thursday, October 17, 2013

Former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim in Superior Court, in Bridgeport, Conn. Sept. 11th, 2012. Ganim appeared in front of a three judge panel in his effort to regain his law license. He was convicted in 2003 of federal corruption, and served seven years of a nine year sentence. The panel later rejected his bid for his law license. The Supreme Court will now hear the case.

From left, Judge DiCocco Dewey, Judge Barbara Bellis and Judge Elliot Solomon sit on the panel during a hearing for former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim in Superior Court, in Bridgeport, Conn. Sept. 11th, 2012. The panel later rejected Ganim's request to get his law license back. He was convicted in 2003 of federal corruption, and served seven years of a nine year sentence. The state Supreme Court will now hear the case.
Photo: Ned Gerard

BRIDGEPORT -- The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of former Mayor Joseph Ganim, who is fighting a three-judge panel's refusal to give him his law license back.

"The Supreme Court has acknowledged the seriousness of the issues involved," said Ganim's lawyer, Harold Rosnick.

No date for a hearing before the state's highest court has yet been set.

Last year the panel of three Superior Court judges rejected Ganim's request to get his law license back, ruling that Ganim, who had been convicted and served time in a federal prison on corruption charges, had shown no remorse for his crimes.

"Allowing an applicant to be readmitted to the practice of law following a conviction on 16 counts of racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, mail fraud, bribery and filing false income tax returns without any apology, expression of remorse, or explanation, and with only a vague acceptance of an unspecified event, simply would set the bar for readmission too low in the state and we are unwilling to do that," the panel of Superior Court judges, Julia DiCocco Dewey, Elliot Solomon and Barbara Bellis stated in a 36-page decision.

The former mayor, at one time considered a contender for a Democratic gubernatorial nomination, was convicted March 19, 2003, on federal corruption and bribery charges and sentenced by federal Judge Janet Arterton to nine years in prison, a $150,000 fine and ordered to pay $148,617 in restitution. According to testimony at trial, he and his associates operated a "pay to play" operation in which local developers had to pay them bribes to get preferential deals with the city.

Following an early release from prison in 2010, he has worked as a legal assistant at his family's law firm here and started a counseling firm for others headed to federal prison while on supervised release.

In July 2012 a state committee made up of local lawyers recommended that Ganim get his law license back ruling he had "met and exceeded" the requirements for admission. The three-judge panel held several days of hearings to make a final decision on the application.

In its decision, the panel found that the lawyers' committee's recommendation was rife with errors.

In his appeal, Ganim contends the three-judge panel substituted its opinion for that of the state committee and usurped the fact finding function of the committee when it determined Ganim has neither shown remorse or accepted responsibility.